Apple is reportedly contemplating eliminating the headphone jack from the next line of iPhones.

Billboardreports that Apple is considering nixing the 3.5mm headphone jack on the iPhone 7, which is due out next year. Sources suggest that the company wants the new generation of phones to be thinner—possibly by as much as 1 mm—in which case the headphone jack might take up too much space. If the jack gets phased out, users' headphones would beam in audio via Apple's Lightning cable, eliminating another analog aspect of listening.

ADVERTISEMENT

As Billboard points out, this would make iPhones at least temporarily incompatible with most existing pairs of headphones. Bonus worry—what's the worth of an iPhone if you're passed the aux cord and can't even plug in?